Episode 35: Juliet Aurora and Steve Loates - Reflections and Plans

Gold Nuggets in this Episode: "As an entrepreneur, no matter what your business industry was, you had some kind of a challenge last year." "Being an entrepreneur is always a rollercoaster – these past nine months even more so." Steve has no words to describe the past year. "What 2020 has showed us is the resilience of the entrepreneur, the ingenuity of the entrepreneur, the tenacity of the entrepreneur…" "Every entrepreneur out there should be very proud of themselves. They are the heart and soul of the economy." "Even if your business wasn't able to survive it, for whatever reason, as an entrepreneur you still have to acknowledge that you did it, you gave it your best shot, you gave it your effort, and to not undervalue what that means. Don't assume that you're a bad entrepreneur because you didn't come out on the other side of this." "A positive thing that came out of it was a lot of introspection for me and a much deeper sense of strong relationships with the people that I determined were important to me, and that the connections with those people was much stronger than they have been before." - Juliet "Personally, I was very glad we launched our podcast." – Steve "The thing I have enjoyed about the podcast and the guests is the variety of guests – lots of different people, different backgrounds, different stories, and different journeys. I can honestly say I learned something from every one of them." Steve turned 65 this year (Happy Birthday!). When his birthday arrived in the fall, he wasn't excited at all. Since then, he's had some time to reflect on it, and he gives some advice to entrepreneurs: "Spend some time planning what you want to do, and spend some time planning what you want your transition to look like." Steve and Juliet are amateur photographer junkies. Every summer, a local photographer does a photography class. This year, because it was done virtually, there was a fall and a winter session, so Steve and Juliet got to spend more time doing something that they both enjoy. They were planning to take their business 100% remote by June this year, but Covid-19 forced them to do it a few months sooner. It's the first time in 10 years that they didn't have a brick-and-mortar office to go to. Juliet is still on the fence as to whether it's the right move for her personally. Steve and Juliet are looking forward to traveling outside the 50-mile (75km) radius of their travels in the last 9 months. "It'll be interesting to see how many of the positive changes around the world stick." "One of the things that has really come out of the last 9 months is how supportive everybody is of everybody else." "Entrepreneurs are generally optimistic people." Steve is optimistic that many good things will remain. Steve and Juliet thank all the listeners for hanging in for the past 40 (more or less) episodes. "The first steps toward getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." – JP Morgan Today, our co-hosts reflect on 2020, and look at the year ahead. 2020 has been more challenging for entrepreneurs than it ever has before, and today Steve and Juliet aim to inspire us to embrace 2021 and let go of 2020. While there is an abundance of negativity, Steve and Juliet take this time to reflect on the positives. Song by Adam Vitovsky / CC BY 3.0